On the 12th day of Christmas...

I ran a race!

Alisa and I had fun... well I think we had fun right? Running this 12K. It was the first year of the race and it was fun to have carolers singing all along the way and we even got a sweet Santa Hat! WOOHOO!

I must be crazy...

I can't believe I'm actually letting myself post this picture, but if it wasn't so dang funny I wouldn! I know this should go with the previous post, but the picture wasn't avaible when I did it.... This is another "Adam MADE me do it picture"

Could I look any whiter? Um yeah, so just so you know I wasn't racing a Giant duck, this was a green screen and they superimposed the background....at least I was winning..... UGH.

RACES!!!

I've done a couple of races (well can you call them races when you have no hope of winning, or for that matter just want to not be last?) over the last couple of weeks so here are the highlights:

First I did the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. Nice little 10k, it had rained for a couple of days prior to the race and cleared up just about an hour before the start. It was nice and cool and mostly shady for the whole (hence I forgot my sunglasses.. argh). Here are some pictures:

Adam MADE me take a picture with the turkey. And as in made I mean he drug me down the street to chase him down and stole him away from some kids that the turkey was giving candy too. He made me put my tshirt on and everything (I should have known this would only be the beginning). He caught me at about the 6 mile mark to take this one:

And here's the finish - please do not look at the finish time... I am so beyond out of shape - luckily that's the gun time so my time was a little bit faster, but still it was a good 7 minutes slower than my PR.

And here are my socks I wore to celebrate the day! The turkey trot I ran in Boise the last couple of years gave socks out instead of shirts (the race was a lot cheaper)... Aren't they SWEET!

And today I did the Iron Girl Tempe. It was a ten miler and the weather was pretty much perfect... well it was a little chilly at the start:

Adam and his parents were there to cheer me on the whole way. The course made two laps and there was a bridge in the middle so they walked back and forth to take pictures and cheer for me:

Obviously no one has ever said running was a glamorous sport. I can't believe I am even posting this picture.

And keeping in line with what I can see will be tradition, Adam made me take a picture with the Duck. What the heck? Why does every race have a fowl for a mascot?

Thanks love for being so supportive of my races and carrying my stuff around for me! Your the best

OH I almost forgot! What was my prize for finishing the race, yes I did get a medal but this is what drove me on for the last mile:

So this really wasn't a prize, but I had been holding onto some gift cards for claim jumper for weeks for this occasion. The biggest pice of chocolate cake you've ever seen! Sweet rewards, priceless.
(By the way, this was pretty good, but I still think Costco Chocolate layered cake wins for best cake ever!)

Turkey Trot- Gobble Gobble!

The Turkey Trot is soooooooo fun! Its not your typical race where the winner is the first to cross the finish line. Its a 4 person relay team where the winner is the team who comes closest to their overall predicted time. Each person runs 2 miles and there are no watches or timers allowed on the course or by spectators.

This year our team was Emily, Mary, Dan and myself. It was pretty chilly that day but the rain mostly stayed away so it wasn't too bad. We didn't even come close to winning, but we had fun!

Oh and the best part our team name "One of us has a crush on Tom Brady" - can you guess which one??

Zeitgeist!

I know what you are thinking - what the heck is Zeitgeist? Well first of all let me give you a pronunciation guide its said Zeit - like Z-ite (as in kite)-guy-st. Wikipedia says "Zeitgeist- is originally a German expression that means "the spirit of the age", literally translated as "time (Zeit) spirit (Geist)".

What does Zeitgeist mean to me? Well its 13.1 miles of craziness including two hills with total elevation change of 1,180 ft. Why do I do it? I don't even know. But it was the 2nd year in a row so I must like it I guess!

This year was really fun because I had a great group of friends run it with me, which included one of my favorite old roommates Sara who came down from UofI to run it with me. Sara actually did awesome and finished 3rd in our age group. As for me? Well unfortunately I was sick all week and didn't run and admittedly really had no business being out there - but I beat my time from last year and crossed that line!

I used to wonder if I was crazy.... Now i KNOW I am!

One bleak December I came home with an idea which I proposed to Emily.... "Hey," I said, "I found us a marathon to run!" Now neither of us had run a marathon and Emily had never even run a half. But for some reason that day I was feeling, well, adventureou. Really, I was just putting the thought out there just to think about. Since then I have learned better... Never, ever make a suggestion like that to Emily unless you are serious! Less than 5 minutes after my original remark, Emily had made me "poundsies" on it... I was stuck. No way out! We trained for the Race to Robie Creek all winter, and exactly 1 week later, Top of Utah traning began!

My summer went like this, Monday- run, Tuesday-run, Wednesday - run, Thursday - nope no running.... but 3 hours of Softball.... Friday - run, and you guessed it Saturday - run! Conversations thru the summer included, "how was your run?", "Shoot me in the Calve", "I only have to run 12 miles this Saturday" (are you kidding me, I actually said ONLY 12 miles?), "I hate fartleks" (yes thats a word..... swedish for speedplay), "I'm a mess".

My atire... well... ummm. Let me tell you NO cotton was allowed and ummm, tank tops and short shorts were my best friends! I'm a little scandelous when I run. Oh yeah, and I have 4 pairs of Asics in my closet, that well look basically.

What did I eat? Well, I ate MOSTLY healthy. OK, so I shoud say I ate all my required fruits, veggies and drank all my water... but well. We have a little tradition, OK, more like insatiable craving, for greasy burgers after our long runs and oh yeah, Scotch and Sodas (not the alcoholic kind). Don't worry I didn't lose any weight in all this running. In fact I gained no less than 5 pounds in the last month of training... Another side effect- my pants don't fit. My calves and thighs won't squeeze into them anymore... I had no idea calves could get so big! My hooker boots better still fit....

Anyway, so the weekend came... we travled down to Logan UT on a Friday afternoon. By we I mean Emily, Mary (our official race mom) and myself. Our first stop was to pick up the race packets. At this point I am getting a little nervous, ok maybe a lot. At the "Expo" I found the coolest wood plaque with three hooks on it, it said "Marathon: Run Hard, Be Strong, Think Big" The problem was the board had 3 hooks... yeah, so that means I have to run 3 marathons? What the heck I said, and bought it anyway.

Very soon after we took off to find our resturuant to carb-load. Let me just tell, eating a lot can be fun, but trying to stuff your face with carbs for 2 straight days, is well not the most pleasant feeling! So we ate, and ate, and ate.. and then sat in our hotel room while Mary and her sister ran off to get Aggie Ice cream with out us. How fair is that? But I had sworn off of sugar in anticipation of the race. OK so before you go thinking that was a major feet - let me say I swore off of it for the last 4 days leading up to the race!

Logically, we would want to get lots of sleep the night before right? Well no luck, Emily's brother, cousin and their roommate show up at our Hotel at midnight. They hadn't planned ahead on where to stay and all 6 of us ended up sharing. Ughhh... The one amazing thing - not one person snored all night - well all 4 hours of it!

4:15 am. The alarms go off. We struggle out of bed. I try to cram a bagel down my throat - I only make it halfway. Mary drives all 6 of us to the race start. We get all set and climb onto the buses that will take us up the canyon. We make it up there at 6:40 ish and jump in the port-a-potty lines then literally run to the last bus transporting warm-up clothing back to the start. its about 40 degrees at the race start.

7:00 - gun goes off and I literally jump - it was scary! We take off down the canyon! What the h**** am I doing!

Mile 2, I begin dedicating my miles to people who have influeced me, past and present roommates, family, friends, teachers... etc.
Mile 6 - I think wow, now only 20 miles left! Thats the farthest I ran and that was on fresh legs!
Mile 7 - Must stop at the port a potty!
Mile 10 - I know what to do with those other two hooks - forget the getting 2 more medals, I am hanging pictures on them!
Mile 13 - halfway. This feels good. My pace is good. I might hit my goal time.
Mile 14 - Bathroom stop again!
Mile 17 - Oh there is Mary yeah! Fresh Powerbar Gels! I still feel good, my pace is good.
Mile 18 - The wall. Yes it exist. My pace drops by 3 minutes per mile instantly... I'm becoming delirious. I can't remember who I have dedicated my miles to!
Mile 20 - a 10K left are you kidding?
Mile 23 - ummm.... have to add in some walk breaks
Mile 24 - now I am really delirious
Mile 26 - OK at least finish strong. Didn't hit my absolute goal time, but I'll hit about what I thought!
Mile 26.2 - Its over! Get me some water!

Wow - what a feeling! But, not one to be repeated in the near future!